Abnormal
by Rose Stetson
Summary: The hunt for a creature led the Stargate and Sanctuary teams to cross paths, but will their innate suspicion of one another lead to war? Have they crossed paths before? Why do Carter and Magnus share the same face?
1. Abnormal

**Abnormal**

**Cross-over between Stargate: Atlantis, Stargate: SG-1, and Sanctuary  
**

Chapter 1:

The world was undisturbed as the private research jet flew quietly over the Nevada desert.

"I hate the desert." Ashley complained as she looked out the window. "I prefer places that get rain and snow."

Dr. Helen Magnus raised an eyebrow as she chuckled softly.

Ashley sat down in the seat across from her mother. "I suppose you like feeling all hot and sticky."

"I am often able to put my discomfort out of my mind." She said with an amused smile as Ashley noticed the strange look on Will's face.

"What?" She demanded.

"Nothing." Will said, quickly.

"And my name's Bigfoot." She said, winning a look from her mother.

"Well, you have to admit that "hot and sticky" as you stated, is part of your "bag 'em" job description." He said, shrugging his shoulders while keeping his hands in his pockets.

Helen laughed softly as he sat down beside Ashley.

"I am still a girl, you know." Ashley protested. "There are some things that girls - no matter what they do for a living - enjoy doing. Bathing is one of those things."

"If you say so." Will said with a shrug.

Ashley glared at him before turning a more professional eye to her mother. "So...what boogeyman are we after today?"

Helen rolled her eyes. "The "boogeyman" as you so brilliantly named him is an abnormal that seems to have been feeding on humans. It seems to literally drain the life out of its prey."

"A vampire?" Ashley asked, eyes wide with skepticism. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

"The samples Henry showed me didn't seem to be the work of _sanguine vampirus_." She said, shaking her head. "There seemed to be some way that this abnormal had of almost interfacing with a human body."

"Interfacing?" Will asked, confused. "Like a computer?"

"Not exactly." She said, shaking her head. "If that were the case, it would be as if two central processing units could be connected, and that one could drain the power out of it with little effort. No, this is much more complex."

"How are they...interfacing?" Ashley asked, looking at her mother.

Helen reached into a briefcase and pulled out a small stack of photographs. "I would imagine that these puncture wounds here would indicate five sharp surfaces. If these creatures are at all humanoid..."

"The hand." Will interrupted.

Helen nodded, in agreement.

"So this...creature...feeds on really old humans?"

Helen bit her lip in concentration. "I don't think so."

"Well, these aren't exactly young people..." Will said, looking at the photographs of the casualties.

"I know." She said, nodding. "But according to the DNA tests I performed, the bodies belonged to Amanda and Heath Knight."

She looked up, and noticed that she had their undivided attention. She inhaled before she finished. "And they were both twenty-five-year-old newlyweds."

Ashley and Will exchanged looks before looking back at Helen. "What are you saying, Mom? That this ghoul took actual years off their lives?"

"It looks that way." Helen said, nodding gravely.

"And we're going to take that thing head-on?" Will asked, skeptically.

Helen's face told him that she shared his worry. If they didn't do this right, they might not manage to do it at all.


	2. Wraith

Chapter 2:

"Hey, Sheppard!" Ronon said as he jogged down the halls of Atlantis and onto the balcony where his commanding officer stood, leaning against the railing.

John turned his head. "Yeah?"

"Woolsey wants us."

"Why?"

Ronon shrugged. "Don't know. Don't care."

John shook his head with a chuckle. "Okay. I'll be right there."

"You might want to hurry. I think he's about ready to shoot McKay."

John pulled away from the railing with a sigh. "As long as it's not some stupid "check the gate to make sure it's not broken" kind of mission."

"My thoughts exactly." Ronon admitted as they entered the gate room.

"John," Teyla said, approaching them. "I have just heard that we are to have a meeting with Dr. Woolsey. Do you know what the meeting is about?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

She nodded pensively as they walked up the stairs to Woolsey's office. "There you are." He said, looking up. "I'd been afraid that you had turned off your earpieces."

John shrugged. They weren't in another galaxy saving the day anymore. They were just roaming around Atlantis, looking at the port of San Francisco. Who cared if they were wearing their earpieces?

"We may not be in Pegasus anymore, but we are still a functioning city." Woolsey reprimanded gently.

"What did you need, Woolsey?" John asked, more than a little frustrated.

"Colonel Carter from the SGC called me with reports that a creature has been feeding on humans in Nevada. From the description of the wounds, and the fact that all of the corpses are aged beyond recognition, she thinks we have a surviving Wraith there. She requested our help in capturing it."

"A mission with SG-1?" Rodney asked, his eyebrow raised.

"No." He said, shaking his head. "General Landry was tied up in meetings at the Pentagon, and she was given temporary command of the base."

"Ah." Rodney said, nodding.

"So...it's just us?" John asked, looking at Woolsey.

He nodded.

"Sweet. We'll gear up, and be on our way."

"You will radio with Colonel Carter since she is running this operation."

"Will do." John acknowledged as he led his team out the door.


	3. Hunt

Chapter 3:

"Colonel Carter," Sgt. Walter Harriman said, knocking on the office door.

"Sergeant." She greeted with a warm smile as she looked up at him. "What can I help you with?"

"We're receiving a communication from Colonel Sheppard."

"Of course, thank you." She said, standing. She made her way down to the control room quickly. "John," She greeted as she reached the microphone.

"Nice to hear from you, Colonel Carter." Sheppard's voice crackled over the intercom.

"And from you." She said with a smile. "I see you got my message."

"Yep. We're flying to Nevada as we speak."

"I'm having the coordinates and mission briefing sent to you." She said, nodding to the technician in front of her.

"Thank you. Is there anything we need to know about this that we don't already know?"

"Only that we sent a team out there after receiving reports of the body trail this Wraith was leaving behind him. When they got there, two of the bodies had been moved."

"It's not like a Wraith to clean up after himself." John said, concerned.

"I know. We do have reports that a private research firm might be involved. Exercise extreme caution."

"Will do."

"I want you to keep in contact as much as possible. Don't endanger yourselves to do so, but keep me apprised of the situation. I have General O'Neill standing by in case he needs to intervene on your behalf."

"Gotcha. We've got the transmission too."

"Wonderful. Then, I'll let you get back to what you were doing."

"Thank you, Colonel. Sheppard out."

"Good luck." She said, sincerely. "Carter out."

The transmission cut off, and Sam inhaled sharply. This could be a sticky situation if there really was a private research firm involved.

-

The jet landed, and Ashley stepped out. She scanned the desert with a critical eye and a gun in each hand. "Clear." She called back into the aircraft.

Will and Helen stepped out behind her.

"All right." Helen said, glancing at her cell phone. "I have the coordinates, and we can get there in only a few minutes." She looked at her daughter. "We will need to begin tracking once we reach the coordinates. I doubt that this creature will remain stationary for long."

Ashley nodded, preparing to get on her motorcycle.

They felt a sudden breeze, and Helen looked up into the sky with a critical eye.

"What's wrong?" Will asked, studying her closely.

"I don't know." She said, still eying the heavens above. "Just...a feeling..."

"What kind of feeling?" Ashley asked, getting off the bike and looking at her mother.

"The feeling that we're not alone. Strange as it may seem, I thought we were being passed by another aircraft."

"That we can't see..." Will said, skeptically.

She turned her gaze to him. "I know it sounds unbelievable, but we have seen stranger things."

Ashley nodded at her mother's words. "It's true." She admitted.

"Still...who on Earth would possess an invisible aircraft?" Will asked, thinking critically.

"Well, the Cabal, for one." Ashley offered.

Helen nodded, gravely. "They do have access to many resources as we have discovered including various military experiments."

"So...step lightly." Ashley interpreted.

Helen nodded. "I don't want them getting their hands on an abnormal as dangerous as this one. No matter the cost."

Ashley and Will nodded, soberly.

-

"I think I found the research jet." Sheppard announced as he flew over the small group of three standing a few feet from an aircraft.

"Oh, great." Rodney said with a sigh. "That's just what we needed. More people who need to be saved."

Teyla raised an eyebrow, though she remained silent.

"So, what's the plan?" He asked, looking at the more experienced military personnel. "Knock them out and tie them up so they don't interfere?"

John sighed. "No. Just get to the Wraith first. If we don't...we'll try to talk to them."

"You're joking, right?" Rodney said, skeptically. "A private research firm probably isn't going to trust the military establishment..."

"Well, it's all we've got." Sheppard said, getting annoyed with the scientist. "Besides, you're a scientist. You can talk to them."

"Hey!"

"You wouldn't want to be misrepresented by us military types, would you?"

Rodney rolled his eyes as he returned to his tablet. "We're nearing the coordinates."

John began the descent gently. A few moments passed before they were on the ground. "Okay, Ronon, you're with me. McKay and Teyla, you're together. Keep in contact with the radio, and look for the Wraith."

McKay nodded as he looked at the life signs detector. "It looks like the Wraith is three clicks to the Northwest."

"right, then. Let's head out." John said as they got out of the puddlejumper.

-

"How are we going to find this abnormal, Magnus?" Will asked as they walked through the desert.

Helen chuckled as she retrieved a device. "Henry wanted me to try out his new device."

"What is it?"

"A thermal-imaging scanner."

"Huh? I thought those have already been invented."

"On this one, we can calibrate it to a certain temperature threshold. It will show us the location of all the living things that generate that amount of heat."

"On a map?"

Helen nodded, excitedly.

"There are five dots." He said, looking over her shoulder.

"That's what I was afraid of." She said, biting the inside of her cheek.

"What were you afraid of?"

"A study of the DNA evidence I collected indicated that there was only one creature – not more than one."

"So, there's another team."

She nodded. "It would seem so."

"Plan of attack?"

"Kick their butts." Ashley said with a grin as she fastened on her helmet.

Helen shook her head. "No. Find the abnormal first, and work together if we don't."

"And if they're Cabal?"

She looked at her daughter before she looked back at Will. "Then, as Ashley intimated, we "kick their butts". But we will not make the offensive strike. Our actions will be defensive and proportional."

They nodded.

-

"We have four other life signs on the scanner." McKay said with a sigh. "One is ahead of us, and three are behind us."

"Then we should continue to the Wraith quickly." Teyla said without looking back.

"McKay! Teyla!" John whispered over the radio.

"Yes?" Teyla asked as she paused to listen to the radio transmission.

"We've got it." He whispered, hiding with Ronon behind a rusty car that had been left at the side of the road.

"Where are you?"

"We're by the side of a highway." He said, seriously. "But I think we can handle it. Stay where you are unless you hear something bad. Or see the science team."

"Very well." She assured.

Rodney looked at the scanner before he reached for his own radio in a little bit of a panic. "One of the life signs behind us is moving rapidly. It's almost there."

"What?" John demanded.

Ronon turned around to see a figure wearing a black helmet and riding a black motorcycle.

"Sheppard." He said as he reached for his stunner.

John looked behind him to see the figure, and he groaned. "Come on..."

They looked back at the Wraith, not surprised to realize that he'd heard the sound of the motorcycle.

"Okay, Ronon, you get the cyclist, and I'll get the Wraith."

Ronon nodded as John stood up from behind the car. As Ronon stunned the rider, John riddled the Wraith with bullets until he finally fell down dead.

-

The sound of gunfire startled Helen who looked at Will. "Ashley!" She cried, running toward the sound of the shots.

Ashley's body was lying limply next to her motorcycle a few feet away from an abandoned car. Two men were leaning over another body closer to the highway.

"Stop!" Helen cried as she ran closer to the site of the fight.

The men looked up, startled.

"I don't think so." Another man said from behind them.

Helen and Will turned around to find two machine guns pointed at them.

-

As the scientists turned around, Rodney gasped before he and Teyla exchanged looks. The brunette looked almost identical to Samantha Carter.


	4. Back Up

Chapter 4:

"My name is Dr. Helen Magnus." Helen reiterated from where she sat in a stainless steel chair in one of the SGC holding cells. "I run a top-secret, private research facility."

Colonel Samantha Carter stopped the tape. "This is weird." She admitted as she stared at the dark-haired Englishwoman.

"You're telling us." John said, seriously. "We were the ones she was about to shoot."

She inhaled sharply before she started the tape again.

"I understand you don't trust me, but I have cooperated thus far, and I would like to see your commanding officer before I tell you anything more."

Sam stopped the tape again with a sigh. "Well, I can't exactly be the one to talk to her."

"So who then?"

"When you called, I put a call into General O'Neill's office." She said with a sigh.

"Colonel Carter?" Chief Master Sergeant Harriman asked, poking his head into the briefing room.

"Yes, Chief?" She asked, turning around to see him.

"General O'Neill is on the phone for you."

She nodded. "Thank you."

She turned back to the Atlantis team. "Excuse me please?"

They nodded as she walked into the office, and answered the phone. "Carter."

"Hi, Carter." The familiar baritone voice answered. "So, I heard there's a situation with the Wraith."

"Not the Wraith in particular." She explained.

"Okay..."

"The problem is the research firm that was following the Wraith."

"What happened?"

"The Atlantis team killed the Wraith and saved one of the research team members by stunning her."

"Okay...so, bad first impression..."

"Certainly not one of our best." She admitted.

"And you need my help...why?"

She hesitated. "Because the lead scientist looks like me. And we all know how the last few interrogations I ran with myself went."

"I'll be there in an hour, tops."

"An hour, sir?"

"The _George Hammond_ is in orbit, waiting while the IOA considers candidates for its command."

"I see."

"I'll be right there, Carter."

"Yes, sir." She said as she hung up the phone. She walked into the briefing room. "General O'Neill is headed over once he can get the _George Hammond_ to beam him over."

"The _George Hammond_?" McKay asked, confused.

She nodded. "General Hammond passed away about three months ago while this ship was just being finished. It was General O'Neill's idea to name it after him, and the Pentagon agreed."

"He's gone?" He asked, surprised.

Sam nodded slowly. "It was a shock. Apparently, he had a stroke."

"Oh." McKay said as a flash of light filled the room.

Jack appeared a few moments later. "So..." He said with a small sigh. "Where's this team?"

"They're in holding cells." Sam informed.

"So, what? Alternate Universe?" He asked, looking over at her.

She shook her head. "I don't think so. She says her name is Helen Magnus."

He looked at her for a moment in surprise. "Are you sure about that?"

She nodded. "Yes, sir. See for yourself." She said, rewinding and playing the tape again.

"My name is Dr. Helen Magnus." Helen stated from where she sat in a stainless steel chair in one of the SGC holding cells. "I run a top-secret, private research facility."

"That can't be Helen Magnus." He said, seriously. "She'd have to be at least...twenty-five years older..."

Everyone in the room just stared at him.


	5. Danny

Chapter 5:

"So...you know Helen Magnus?" Sam asked, trying to wrap her head around this bizarre twist of fate.

"Doctor," He stressed. "Helen Magnus, and yes...I met her on a Special Ops mission twenty-five years ago."

"Really?" Sheppard asked, surprised.

He nodded. "Yeah. It was before Sara...and I was new to special ops..."

"And she hasn't changed."

He shook his head. "This can't be Helen Magnus." He said, seriously.

"Or she could be..." Sam began. "A goa'uld."

He swiftly blew out the air in his lungs. "Great."

"I'd feel better about this if we ran a full physical on our visitors..."

He nodded. "Yeah, but we should at least talk to them before we send them to Lam."

"I don't think it would be wise for either of us to visit with Dr. Magnus..."

He nodded. "That's a fair assessment."

"Shall I call Daniel?"

He nodded again. "He'd be good to talk to her."

"Do you want to come with when I ask him?"

"Sure. I haven't seen ol' Danny in a while..." He said with a shrug.

Sam looked back at the Atlantis team still standing in the briefing room. "I think we can handle this situation here. If we still need you, we'll call you..."

John nodded silently.

Rodney looked over at Sam. "There's really not much for us to do there...we can stay and help..."

Jack looked back at the scientist. "Aren't you supposed to be trying to get back to Pegasus?"

"Oh...right..."

"We'll call you if we need you." Sam reiterated.

"Sure." John Sheppard said, nodding as he looked at his team. "Let's go, folks."

Sam watched them leave before she shared a sigh with her commanding officer. "Off to Danny's..."

She nodded as they walked down the corridor to the elevator.

-

"Knock, knock." Sam said as she walked into Daniel's office.

The archaeologist looked up in surprise. "Hey, Sam!"

She smiled as Jack appeared around the corner. "Hey, Danny."

"Jack? What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too," the Air Force general said, wryly.

"Sorry, Jack." Daniel said, shaking his head. "Hi."

"Hi, Danny."

"What are you doing here?"

"Helping out with a minor crisis." Sam said with an uncomfortable smile.

"Oh?" He asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"Do you remember the Wraith invasion?"

"Yeah. That was a close call."

"Well, we discovered evidence that there was a Wraith living in Nevada, and so we sent the Atlantis team to get it."

"Right..." He said, following the story closely.

"They managed to kill the Wraith, but not without running into a private research firm that was after the Wraith."

"Oh boy..."

Sam nodded. "Right now, we have the three team members in holding cells, but we've run into a problem."

"Oh?"

"The leader looks almost identical to Carter." Jack announced.

Daniel's eyes widened. "Alternate universe?"

Sam shook her head. "She calls herself Dr. Helen Magnus, and General O'Neill has run into her on his special ops missions."

"Wow." He said, surprised. "Who knew?"

"We were hoping that you could talk to her since you have absolutely no connection to her."

"Sure." He said, nodding. "Why not?"

"Thanks." They said in unison.


	6. Interrogation

Chapter 6:

If there was one thing that truly irritated Dr. Helen Magnus, it was waiting.

She sat in the concrete room on an uncomfortable stainless steel chair, held captive in a gray jumpsuit while she waited to speak to the commanding officer of this obviously top-secret base.

Suddenly, the door opened, and she looked up to see a brown-haired man who wore glasses that were slipping down his nose as he looked at a report. "Hi, my name is..."

"Dr. Daniel Jackson." She said, looking at him steadily.

He paused and looked back up at her. "I'm sorry. Have we met?"

She shook her head. "No. but I am familiar with your work."

"My work..."

"Anyone who is bold enough to make a statement like the one that you made about the Egyptian pyramids catches my attention." She said with a warm smile forgetting for only a moment that she was a prisoner.

"Oh." He said, looking down at the report. "So, your name is..."

"Dr. Helen Magnus." She said, seriously.

"Right." He said with a smile as he wrote it down in his notes.

"As much respect as I have for your work, Dr. Jackson," she began, returning to her intimidating side as she realized that he was yet another interrogator. "I hardly believe that you are the commander of this facility."

"Well, you're right. I'm not." He said, seriously. "But they're trying to gather some more information before they come down and visit with you face-to-face."

She looked at the camera with supreme disapproval before she sighed. "I want an assurance that my daughter is well. She was rendered unconscious by your team in Nevada, and before I cooperate any further, I want to see her."

"I'm sure your daughter as well as the young man who was traveling with you are fine, but I'll see what I can do." He said, nodding.

"Thank you." She said, managing a sober smile.

-

Daniel walked out of the interrogation room and toward Sam and Jack who were awaiting his response.

"She wants to see her daughter. Apparently, she'd been rendered unconscious."

Sam nodded. "Ronon stunned her."

"Well, she's not willing to say anything else until she sees her daughter and makes sure she's all right."

"Then let's arrange a family reunion." Jack said, seriously. "In the infirmary while we get their physicals done by Dr. Lam."

Daniel's brow furrowed. "Why exactly are you..."

"Apparently Helen Magnus has not aged in approximately twenty-five years. We're wondering if she isn't a goa'uld." Sam explained.

"You knew a goa'uld in your special ops days?" Daniel asked, looking over at jack incredulously.

"We're not sure." She quickly corrected. "But just in case..."

"She's a nice woman," Daniel said, biting the inside of his cheek. "I don't think she's a goa'uld. A Tok'ra, maybe..."

"Don't even start, Danny..." Jack warned.

"Look, let's just let her see her daughter, and then, we'll see about the physicals." Daniel suggested.


	7. Face to Face

Chapter 7:

Helen eyed the SF with a critical eye as he handcuffed her. "Could you do anything more degrading?" She asked harshly. "I'm being treated like a common criminal."

He was silent.

She rolled her eyes as she sighed. This routine was getting really old really quickly.

"The prisoner's ready for transport." The SF announced as he knocked on the door.

If only she had enough strength to overpower both of the guards, she thought to herself. And to outrun all of the other guards in this secret base.

Part of her hoped that Ashley had attempted and succeeded in escaping, but she knew that even her daughter, with all of her strength and fury, would be unable to overthrow the oppressive hand of the United States Air Force.

And Will was as hopeless as she was.

They walked down the corridors, and she studied them for any hope of escape. From what she could gather, they were most likely underground. Though, how far underground was a mystery to her.

She was escorted only a few feet before she was allowed into a recreation room. Two figures stood in the room, dressed in official uniforms. The blond didn't catch her attention nearly as much as the gray-haired Air Force general who stood, waiting expectantly.

She swallowed. "Jack."

"Hello, Helen." He said with a stony expression on his face.

-

Ashley was escorted into the room, practically dragged by the SFs.

"Colonel, she tried to escape." One of them announced.

Sam sighed. "We'll handle it from here, sergeant."

Ashley stared at the woman before she looked back at her mother. "It's like...having two moms!" She cried, incredulously.

Helen didn't even hear what her daughter had said though Sam managed a less than comfortable smile at the thought.

"What are you doing here, Helen?" Jack asked after a moment.

"Your team brought me in."

"Okay...what I meant was why were you looking for that creature?"

"Isn't that what I do, Jack?" She asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Or don't you remember why we met in the first place."

He sighed as Sam turned a questioning glance to him. "There was...a rash of brutal murders of US soldiers." He explained. "We were sent in to assassinate whomever had done it."

"It was an abnormal." Helen said, looking over at the woman. Her eyes widened, though she didn't say anything about the strangeness of having a grown woman unrelated to her look like her twin.

"An abnormal?" Sam asked, confused.

"Boogeyman...Bigfoot...monsters under the bed..." Jack clarified.

"Mythological creatures?" She asked, skeptically.

"They're far from mythological." Helen said, seriously, before she looked back at Jack. "You never introduced me to your friend."

He sighed. "Helen Magnus, I'd like to introduce you to the acting commander of this base, Colonel Samantha Carter. Carter, I'd like to introduce you to the director of the entire Sanctuary Global Network, Dr. Helen Magnus."

"Sanctuary?" Sam asked, confused.

"My home and other places around the world like it," Helen began. "Have become havens for abnormals who are so brutally treated that humans deny their existence."

"So, you thought you were tracking an abnormal..."

"I know I was tracking an abnormal." Helen corrected.

"Actually, Helen, that was an alien."

"Alien?" She asked, skeptically.

"Now, that is a myth."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so. That's what I do for a living."

"Track aliens?" Helen asked, dubiously.

"Actually, I just do the meet-and-greet. Every so often, I have to track them down, but usually I just learn what I can from their cultures and their technology."

Just then, Daniel arrived with the SFs who were escorting Dr. Will Zimmerman to the rec room.

Helen looked at her daughter and protege, both dressed in the same gray jumpsuits as she was, to verify their safety before she turned back to Jack O'Neill. "Why have we been treated like prisoners, Jack? We've cooperated so far."

"Your daughter tried to escape." He said, evenly.

"And if I give you my word that she will refrain in the future?"

"Then we'd have the simple problem that you haven't aged in twenty-five years."

She tensed.

"We'd like to run some tests before we expose you for the alien that you are."

She raised an eyebrow in surprise. "The what?"

"Take her to the Infirmary. Dr. Lam's expecting her." Jack said, looking at the SFs.

"I have an explanation, Jack." Helen announced as the SFs approached her.

"What kind of explanation?" Daniel asked, curiously.

She looked at Daniel, and then, she looked at Jack. "I am 157 years old."

"Excuse me?" Jack asked as his mind refused to comprehend this.

"I was born in the year 1852 to Gregory and Althea Magnus."

Sam's brow furrowed. "Althea Magnus?"

Helen looked over at her American double. "Yes..."

"That was my mother's name..."

Helen's eyebrows raised. "Excuse me?"

Jack's jaw dropped. "You really are twins?"

Sam shook her head. "No. My mother wasn't born until 1949, and everyone called her Thea. But she was born in England, and her maiden name was Magnus. She met my father when he was on a tour in Germany. He took a weekend trip to France, and they met in the Louvre. They were just excited to meet another English speaker, and the rest is history. But my mother always said that her name was a family name that had been passed down for generations."

"And it was." Helen said, thoughtfully. "My mother happened to have the same name as my father's mother, and the name was passed down the Magnus line every few years. Beginning with my cousin, Byron Magnus, who named his daughter, Althea." Helen thought for a moment. "She didn't survive into adulthood, and when her older brother's oldest son, Henry, married, he named his eldest daughter Althea in memory of the aunt he'd never gotten to meet."

Sam's eyes widened. "Henry Magnus? That was my grandfather."

Helen's eyes mirrored the surprise in Sam's. "We're cousins, then." She said, shocked. "Four times removed."

Jack stared at the two women. They were cousins...that had been separated by four generations. His brain hurt.

"All of that aside," Sam said, waving away the genealogy. "How on Earth could you be one-hundred and fifty-seven years old?"

Helen inhaled before she admitted her secret. "I injected myself with the pure blood of the ancient Vampires."

Sam and Jack exchanged looks of skepticism.

"Vampires?" Daniel asked, surprised.

She nodded. "They ruled the world during the Greek and Roman eras for certain, and possibly as far back as Egypt."

Daniel shook his head. "Not Egypt. The goa'uld ruled the world for Egypt."

"The what?"

"Goa'uld." Jack began. "These little alien snakes that wrap themselves around your spine and interface with your brain so that they can take over your body whenever they feel like it."

"That's fascinating." Helen said with a thirsty gleam in her eyes at the thought of another abnormal parasite.

"That's terrible!" Ashley cried at the same time.

"Thank you." Jack said, motioning to Ashley. "My thoughts exactly."

"So, you're a vampire." Sam said, returning to the earlier topic.

"No." Helen said, shaking her head. "But I have been blessed – or cursed – with an abnormal longevity for a human being."

"Doesn't sound like much of a curse to me." Jack said, seriously.

Helen tensed for a moment as she swallowed. "How many friends will you have buried in your lifetime, Jack? A rough estimate will suffice..."

He tensed. "Uh...I don't know...if I'm lucky it will only be thirty or forty..."

"And lovers?"

"Uh...none..."

"I have buried at least a hundred friends, and eighteen lovers." She said with an eye filled with experienced sadness. "And with each passing generation, it becomes more and more difficult."

Jack looked at Sam, who shrugged. "It would make sense, sir." She admitted. "I mean, Jolinar had been alive for nearly two hundred years, and she'd been in love for more than a hundred of them. It's something I'm still not sure I can understand. And Martouf...well, his grief was overwhelming to see."

He looked back at Helen. "I still want a physical to verify her story - and to check on the other two."

Helen sighed. "If you're that stubborn, I suppose we will have to submit ourselves to your tests."

"Thank you."

"In exchange for a telephone call."

"A telephone call?"

"Any common criminal would get one." She reminded him. "And I am no more a criminal than you are, Jack."

He sighed. "One phone call."

"Where is your infirmary?" She asked, looking at the SFs.


	8. Changed

Helen sat on the edge of the hospital bed as the nurse took her blood. "I suppose I will have to submit myself to an MRI or a CAT scan in order to assuage your fears of my identity," she said, looking over at Jack.

"Standard procedure, Helen." He said with a sober shrug.

"Is that what we're down to, then?" She asked, looking over at him somewhat discreetly.

Sam watched the exchange, slowly tensing as she started to sense that there'd been more than just cooperation between the scientist and her commanding officer twenty-five years ago.

That made everything just that much more awkward, she thought to herself. That she was the virtual clone of his ex-girlfriend.

Jack sighed. "That wasn't my choice, Helen."

She inhaled sharply. "I know. Your duty."

"It was more than that, Helen, and you know it." He said without batting an eye.

"Like what?" She asked, looking over at him.

"Like the fact that you never stopped wearing that locket."

"Until now when your team took it from me." She said, evenly.

"If you are who you say you are, you might get it back." He said, seriously.

"Guilty until proven innocent, Jack?" She asked, eying him steadily. "And what about when you and I met, hm? What if I'd given you the same treatment?"

"When the fate of the world hangs in the balance," he said, stoically. "Everyone's guilty until proven innocent."

He shared a look with Sam, and she swallowed. They, themselves had been "guilty until proven innocent" on more than one occasion – most notably when they'd been mistaken for za'tarcs.

She needed to get out of here.

"You've changed." Helen finally said, staring straight ahead again as Sam left.

"A lot can happen in 25 years." He said, evenly. "To everyone except you, it would seem."

"A lot has happened to me in the last twenty-five years as well." She said, softly.

"Oh, right...you had a kid..." He said, somewhat sarcastically.

She tensed. "Yes. Among other things."

"Like..."

"My...ex...appeared from out of nowhere recently."

"What...some guy from the 19th century just dropped in for a visit?" He asked, mockingly.

"As a matter of fact..." She said, looking over at him. "Yes."

"Oh, right..." He said, nodding. "And he's Ashley's father too, I'll bet."

"You're mocking me."

"Helen, this whole story is so remarkably unbelievable that I'm trying to figure out how someone who used to be so logical could come up with something so far-fetched."

The nurse returned after having deposited the sample at the lab. "Ma'am? I'm supposed to take you to get an MRI."

"If you must, then you must." She said, acquiescing as the SFs stepped forward to escort her. She looked back at Jack. "Perhaps like you, I have a unique vision of reality."

He raised an eyebrow.

"You know things about the galaxy that others could only dream of." She continued. "Perhaps I've seen things just as spectacular that are on this Earth instead of lightyears away from it."

He watched her leave with a steady eye. He couldn't afford to give into Helen Magnus. She was the siren that would spell his demise.


	9. Revelations

**Honduras 1985**

_Captain Jack O'Neill followed his commander closely. Something was killing off the US troops stationed here on a good-will mission to bring aid to the Hondurans. So, the Air Force had sent in a Special Ops team. Their mission was to find and eradicate the threat._

_A snap of a twig caused the mission commander to raise the halt signal as they listened for more clues about the source of the snap._

_Silence reigned for a few moments before the commander began to let his hand slide back down to his gun._

_Just then, a woman appeared only a few feet ahead of them. She had soft, long, blond hair that was swept up into a hastily knotted bun at the nape of her neck. With a silken scarf about her neck and a carefully coordinated outfit, she looked like she was on a turn of the century safari. Jack was absolutely astounded by her._

_She looked in their direction, and he realized she possessed a keen sense of observation and perception. Still, she didn't react, and he assumed that she had not seen them._

_A piercing scream from the camp caught the attention of both the mission commander and the elegant huntress. The mission commander refused to react until this woman was out of their way._

"_Bernie, this is Helen." She called over the radio. "I believe the creature is in the camp."_

_Jack looked over at his commander, somewhat worriedly. Creature? In the camp?_

"_I'll meet you there," came the man's response as she carefully made her way down to the encampment._

_When she was out of earshot, the commander looked at them. "You avoid those two at all costs."_

_The team nodded._

"_Find and eliminate the threat. That's all we're here for."_

_They nodded._

-

"Sir?" Sam asked as she joined him in Landry's office.

He shook the memories from his mind. "Yeah?"

"Any word on the physicals?"

He shook his head. "No. Not yet."

"Oh," she said, softly.

He looked over at her. "You okay?"

"Fine." She said, swallowing down every question she wanted to ask him about Helen Magnus.

He sighed. "She saved my life."

She looked over, curiously. "What?"

"I had a mission in Honduras in '85. My team was supposed to get rid of whatever was killing our troops over there, but they got killed instead."

"I'm sorry, sir, how does..."

"Helen Magnus was hunting the same abnormal we were. Except we thought it was a group of Honduran terrorists, and she thought it was one of those scary things that goes "bump" in the night."

"She did your job for you."

He nodded. "And patched me up too."

"So, why are you treating her like the enemy here? I mean, I'd think you owed her one or something..."

He swallowed. "She told me my team had abandoned me. That they'd left me for dead."

"You hate her because she'd never heard your motto?"

He shook his head. "No. It was because she saved my life, but not the lives of my team. She bandaged me up, and set me on a plane home, but didn't even bother to look for the rest of my team. And made me think that I didn't have to either..."

Sam swallowed as she studied him, closely.

"Nothing good happens when that woman is involved." He said, soberly. "Nothing good at all."

"She saved your life, didn't she?" Sam asked after a moment's pause.

Carolyn Lam knocked on the door. "Well, she's not human."

"Goa'uld?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Actually, I've never seen a makeup quite like hers before."

"So, the Vampire story...?" Sam asked, looking at the doctor.

Carolyn shrugged. "I have no idea."

"And you're sure she's not goa'uld?"

She nodded. "There was no symbiote on the MRI, and her blood didn't show any of the protein markers or naquadah typically left after a human plays host to a goa'uld or a Tok'ra for that matter..."

"Completely foreign?"

She nodded. "Yep. I did a little research to see if this was an anomaly that had appeared anywhere else, and while it's somewhat similar to some anomalies I found in Eastern Europe and India, it's really in a class of its own."

"Especially if she really is as old as she says she is."

"Exactly." Carolyn said, nodding.

"All right." Jack said with a sigh. "I guess, I owe her a phone call..."

"Are you sure that's wise, sir?" Sam asked, looking over at him.

"No." He said, seriously. "But I do know that if I don't keep my word, I'm no better than any of the bad guys I've been fighting for the past twelve years."

"Yes, sir." She said, nodding.

"Still, I would like you to monitor the call closely. Tell me about any red flags you pick up."

She nodded. "Yes, sir."

He rubbed his eyes wearily. Why had she come back into his life after all of these years?


	10. Flashback

_His whole body hurt, like he'd been run over by a semi. The light coming through the trees made him wince at the sunlight._

"_I think he's waking." He heard the British woman say._

"_Agh..." He moaned as he moved a hand up to shield his eyes as he opened them._

_The blond woman bent over him so that the sunlight was radiating off her hair. With his blurry vision, he could have sworn that she was an angel._

"_Hello." She greeted, warmly. "My name is Helen. Helen Magnus. And you are?"_

"_In need of a doctor." He groaned as he let his hand fall over his eyes as he closed them._

"_Then you're in luck." She said somewhat amused as she studied him. "What's the trouble?"_

"_Where's my team?"_

"_Team?" She asked, confused. "You were alone."_

"_Alone?" He asked, removing his hand from his eyes as he stared at her incredulously._

"_I didn't even know you'd had a team." She said, seriously._

"_I'm in big trouble if they go home without me." He said, attempting to sit up. A searing pain in his abdomen told him that was a bad idea, and he laid back down. "What happened?"_

"_Bernie and I found you just outside the campground. You'd been badly injured – lacerations to the abdomen, abrasions to the face, and a broken ankle." She reported. "Don't you remember what happened before then?"_

_He shook his head. "No..."_

"_Oh dear." She sighed. "I was hoping you could give us some information on the creature that attacked you."_

"_Creature?" He asked, eyebrows raised._

_She nodded. "Yes."_

"_You mean terrorists, right?"_

_She shook her head. "These marks are not the work of human weaponry. It's definitely the work of something with claws."_

_He sighed. "Look, I appreciate you binding me up, and all of that, but I've got to find my team, and go home."_

"_I'm sorry," she said, seriously. "I cannot, as a good physician, allow that."_

"_And why not?"_

"_Because you were left for dead – if not by your team, then certainly by a creature that could have ripped your leg from your body instead of simply breaking your ankle." She said, plainly._

"_Fine." He reluctantly agreed. "But as long as you look for my team."_

_She sighed. "I have only myself and Bernie. I cannot allow either of us to look for your team until after we've captured the abnormal."_

"_Abnormal?" He asked, curiously._

"_Mythological creature." She explained. "A being that is unlike anything you've ever known."_

"_Right...like Bigfoot..."_

"_My manservant." She said, seriously._

_He looked at her with a strange look. "You're making that up."_

"_The point is," she interjected. "That you're the only one who's been up against the creature and lived to tell the tale. Do you remember anything that might give us a fighting chance? Or are you finally ready to give me your name?"_

_He sighed as he retrieved his dog tags. "O'Neill. Captain Jack O'Neill. United States Air Force."_

"_It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain O'Neill." She said with a small smile. "Now, if you're ready, I've made us a cup of tea."_


	11. Red Phone

The red phone rang, and Sam picked it up, curiously. "Carter."

"Colonel!" President Hayes greeted. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, sir." She said, confused. "And you?"

"Never better, never better." He said, jovially. "Hey, is Jack around by any chance?"

She looked at her commanding officer. "Yes, sir. He's right here."

"Put him on a minute, please."

She offered the phone to the General. "It's the President. He'd like to speak with you."

Jack raised an eyebrow as he accepted the phone. "Mr. President?"

"Jack! Long time no see!"

"I was just there, briefing you on the..."

"Joke, Jack." The President chuckled.

"Right."

"Jack, I hear you have Helen Magnus in custody."

Jack looked at Sam with his brow furrowed. "Sir, how could you..." He began.

"She called."

"Helen Magnus called you?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yes. And she would like to be released."

"Uh, sir..."

"Jack, we have a standing arrangement with the Sanctuary network. They take care of the creepy, crawly things, and we let them go from our top-secret military bases."

Jack sighed. "Yes, sir."

"You don't agree?"

"No, sir, I don't."

"Why not?"

Jack exhaled silently. "Because she's not human, sir."

"Of course she's not!" Henry exclaimed with a laugh. "Do you think any human could live to be a hundred and fifty-seven years old and look as incredible as she does?"

"Then you know, sir?" He asked, confused.

"Look, she's not Goa'uld or Tok'ra. You had that checked already. So, she's got to be something else, and at this point, does it really matter what?"

"Of course!" Jack sputtered.

"Jack, she's a good woman." Henry sighed. "And I'm ordering you to let her go."

Jack looked up at the ceiling, feeling defeated. "Yes, sir."

"Now...put the Colonel on," he commanded. "I want to make sure my orders are taken out."

Jack winced slightly as he handed the phone back to Sam. "He wants to talk to you now."

"Okay..." She said somewhat nervously. "Hello, Mr. President?"

Jack's thoughts raced as Sam talked to the President. Helen Magnus had connections with the President? Just how deep was her cover? How many layers of secret organizations were piled over the dust of the Sanctuary network?

"He wants us to let her go." Sam said as she hung up the phone.

"I know." He said, shaking his thoughts from his mind.

"You could talk to her." She suggested. "Ask her to explain Honduras..."

"There's nothing to explain." He said, standing.

"Look, I may seem like the blond version of her that has less than a third of her life experience, but she probably has a good explanation for what she did." She said, seriously.

He inhaled as he turned to leave. "Maybe you're right."

"I know I am."

He looked back at her. "By the way, Carter...she hasn't always been a brunette...when I knew her, she was a blond."

Sam shook her head fiercely. This was getting WAY too weird.


	12. Out of Line

Jack walked down to the holding cell to which Helen Magnus had been returned after her physical. He sighed before he looked at the SFs and nodded.

Silently, the door was opened, and Helen looked up at the sound of the metal door being opened. She tensed when she saw Jack – something had soured his mind against her, and she wanted desperately to know what. She'd saved his life years ago. In her book, that constituted a good deed which required a turn of good will in response. Containment in this box-like room was far from the good will she'd expected.

He stepped into the small metal room. "President Hayes called. You're free to go."

She studied him closely. "You're unsure that I should be," she observed.

"You've given me no reason to doubt your good intentions..." He swallowed. "You've cooperated and you've pulled the right strings. If the President of the United States gives you a vote of good faith, then I can't refute it."

"You're saying it, but you don't believe it." She said, raising an eyebrow. "You don't trust me."

"I don't trust a lot of things these days." He said, soberly.

"Are you going to continue being cryptic or are you going to tell me what you hate about me?" She asked with a sigh as she stood.

"My team didn't abandon me in '85." He said, soberly.

"I'm sorry to hear it." She said, studying his eyes evenly.

"I got back to the States, and discovered that I was the only one who'd come home. They've been MIA for the last 25 years."

She listened closely, awaiting for this information's relevance.

"You didn't tell me they were dead, and you didn't look for them. You kept me there in that damn camp until I was well enough to go home – not allowing me to look for them."

"If I had, you might not be here today." She said, softly. "As irresponsible as you think my actions were, you need to remember that I have been doing this since long before you were born."

"That's another thing. How is it possible that you can be 157?"

"I explained that, Jack." She said, patiently.

"When I first saw you in the jungle, I thought you were the closest thing to an angel I'd ever seen." He said, soberly. "Now, I know you're nothing but a devil."

She tensed.

"Nothing good has ever happened when I've been around you. So, what's the trick up your sleeve this time?"

"You've only had one experience with me." She said, trying not to take his last insult to heart. "And it was a tragic one for which I apologize, but I am not the reason that your team members never returned home. The important thing is that Bernie and I were able to take the creature to the Sanctuary before any more damage had been done."

"It's still alive?!" Jack demanded, angrily.

Helen winced though it was more out of instinct than out of fear. "Perhaps I should take my leave of you at this time."

"What right do you have to save the monsters that have killed so many good men?" He asked, harshly, with his face inches from her own. "What right do you have to dictate whether or not an animal lives or dies?"

She swallowed. "I don't want that right, and I don't believe that I have that right anymore than you do." She whispered. "Still, I believe that where possible, life should be preserved in all cases."

"What about Jack the Ripper and the string of serial killers he brought behind him? Hm?"

She tensed sharply.

"What about dictators who have only a thirst for power and a penchant for murder?" He continued. "And beings who pose as gods because they're more technologically advanced than the average human?"

She didn't know what to say. For one of only a few times in her life, she was completely speechless.

"I've stared into the depths of hell, Helen. Literally and figuratively." He said with hardened eyes. "And..."

"Sir..." Sam interrupted from behind him.

He paused before he looked back. "Carter?"

"May I have a word, please?" She asked, steadily returning his gaze.

He sighed before he nodded.

Helen sat back down, grateful that the encounter was over.


	13. Justification

Sam inhaled, somewhat nervously. "I'm sorry, sir...I...didn't want you to do anything you were going to regret..."

He sighed, allowing himself to calm down. "It's okay, Carter. I was out of line. You did the right thing."

She studied him for a moment before she gathered up the courage to ask him the question on her mind. "That wasn't about a team, was it?" She asked, looking over at him.

"Huh?" He asked, confused.

"That wasn't just about your team, was it?" She asked again.

"Me and Helen?" He asked, looking back at the closed door behind them. "Oh...no...trust me...maybe twenty-five years ago, and maybe if we'd met under different circumstances, but...she's still in love with a guy from the 19th century, and...well...my best friend was on that team..."

"Your best friend?" She asked, surprised.

"We were friends from high school, the Academy and through that mission." He said with a sigh. "When I came home and found out that they were MIA, I tried to get a team together to go back and save them, but they'd disappeared without a trace."

"That must have been tough." She said, compassionately.

"I had to see the look on his parents' face when they realized that he wasn't coming home. When they realized that because of some strange woman's decision to save me and me alone, they weren't going to see their son ever again."

The pain of that memory had probably been compounded with his own son's death, she reasoned. "You blame her for your friend's death?"

He sighed. "I don't know. It's illogical to be so angry with her, but...we still don't know what happened to them."

Sam nodded. "That's the hardest." She admitted.

"Well, it's not easy." He agreed.

They were silent for a moment before he sighed. "The world she opened up to me, Carter...that's the reason I had the gun in the first place..."

She looked at him, confused.

"When I got back from that mission, after I saw the look on Gary's parents' faces...I kept a gun with me at all times. When Sara and I got together, I made her keep one in the house, and though she was uncomfortable with it...she was okay with it..."

"Until Charlie was born." Sam prompted as she felt her heart drop the pit of her stomach as she realized what was going on with his emotions.

"I didn't listen to her. I refused to let any monster get the best of my family. Regular intruders, I could have handled. Even Sara with her civilian self-defense classes and frying pan could have handled them. But monsters?" He asked, pain lining the wrinkles of his face.

She felt tears sting her eyes as she listened to his words.

"The night before Charlie died, I thought I'd heard something downstairs, so I got the gun. Turned out to be a false alarm, and I guess I was half-asleep or something, but I must not have locked the gun away as well as I thought I had."

"It was an accident, sir." She said, touching his arm gently. "It wasn't your fault, and it wasn't Dr. Magnus's fault."

"She protects a world that hunts good men like animals, Carter..."

She inhaled sharply as she studied him. "She's not responsible for every action they take, Jack. She's just a person. Like you and me."

He looked away, clearly unwilling to hear anymore.

"Why don't I take it from here?" She asked, nodding toward the interrogation room.

"That would be best." He admitted. "But I should apologize..."

"I'll handle it, sir. You can send something in writing later."

He nodded slowly as he left.

The door opened, and Sam walked into the room with Helen. She studied the British woman closely for a few moments as she bit the insides of her cheeks. Finally, she opened her mouth. "He's not usually like this."

Helen swallowed. "I'm glad to know that I have such a positive influence, then." She tried to joke.

"When he came back in '85, he had to tell his best friend's parents that they were never going to see their son again." She explained. "And within fifteen years, he had to experience their pain firsthand when his son shot himself with his personal firearm."

Helen watched the younger woman closely.

Sam swallowed. "A firearm that he probably wouldn't have kept in his house if he hadn't realized that there was such a thing as a monster."

Helen closed her eyes as she imagined the pain Jack had gone through. If something happened to Ashley...

"I'm not saying that he was in the right, or that he couldn't have handled this reunion more appropriately, but...I did want you to understand what was going through his mind."

Helen nodded before she looked up at Sam with a knowing eye. The young woman's justification was all-too familiar to her. It sounded like the excuses she'd made in her head for John's madness. "You're in love with him." She said, matter-of-factly.

"He's my commanding officer, and I respect him too much to let you think he's some power hungry leader with anger management issues." She countered, evenly.

"As a second-in-command, you don't have to explain his behavior." Helen said, softly. "As a woman in love, you do. Trust me, I've been there."

Sam exhaled deeply. "You're free to go, Dr. Magnus."

"Thank you." Helen said standing again.

"Did you ever think you could have loved him?" Sam finally blurted.

Helen paused, and looked back. Finally, she shook her head. "It would have been doomed if it had ever started. And he knew it the minute he saw that locket."

Sam looked somewhat confused as the SFs returned a bag with Helen's clothing and personal effects to her.

She reached in, and retrieved an ornate locket. "Ashley's father gave this to me shortly after we became engaged. And until now, I've never taken it off."

With a careful and thoughtful gesture, she put the locket back on. "My love for John is my burden to carry. My cross to bear." She inhaled as she opened it, and gazed at the picture of John Druitt in her locket. She remembered Jack's accusation that she was playing God by choosing who should live and who should die, and how he'd unwittingly cut her with his words. "And perhaps, it has affected my capability of making decisions."

Sam studied the other woman closely.

Helen looked back at Sam. "Thank you for my freedom, Colonel Carter."

"You're welcome."

"Perhaps we will meet again."

"Perhaps." Sam said, watching her closely.

Helen managed a faint and sober smile as she left to change and meet her team.

Sam sighed. This was going to be one interesting debrief with Landry, the Pentagon, and the IOA.

-

Helen, Ashley and Will were escorted to the surface by a team of SFs, and Ashley looked over at her mother. "Are you okay, Mom?"

Helen sighed as she looked forward to the future. "I will be." She assured. "I just...have a lot of things to think about."

"Like?"

Helen remained silent, refusing to burden her daughter with the many questions running through her mind. Encounters such as these always led to a reevaluation, and for that reason, alone, she was grateful for this. Still, they often haunted her dreams as she considered the world and her place in it.

Perhaps like Jack had suggested, she wasn't a savior to the down-trodden. Perhaps she was merely a devil to those who had lived life so bravely in the past. Perhaps she was simply as abnormal to her kind as the others whom she helped were to her protege. Perhaps, they were all simply abnormal.

"Nothing." She said, shaking her head. "It's nothing..."


End file.
